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HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP

However, it was mis-sold to millions of people who either had no idea what they were buying or had little chance of making a successful claim, earning banks a fortune.

For some it can feel that advertising from claims management firms through cold calls, text messages and radio asking whether you have been missold PPI are relentless.

However, the FCA said today that a quarter of consumers have still not hear of PPI and of those who have, a quarter do not realise there has been an issue with it.

It added that as the scandal drags on, an increasing number of claims are made through these claims management companies.

Tip of the iceberg: The bottom patterned red line is largely PPI complaints. They have fallen since their 2012 peak, but still make up a significant proportion of complaints made about the financial services industry

They charge claimants a flat fee or a proportion of any compensation that has been paid out.

The companies often take a large cut for what can be done very easily by the claimants themselves. Making a PPI complaint is easy. You can follow our guide here, where you will find letter templates to print out and send to your bank if you think you may have a claim.

The FCA added that a growing proportion of complaints made today concern sales made more than a decade ago, where evidence is patchy and people’s memories around the issue ‘increasingly stale’.

Furthermore an increasing number of complaints turn out not to have involved a PPI sale at all.

The watchdog also raised concerns that a number of people still intended to make a claim but were putting it off because there was no particular deadline to meet.

If it did decide to set a deadline, it would do so with an advertising campaign to help spread the message that people could still complain, but that their opportunity was finite.

The FCA added that it would also look into another PPI scandal, which some have suggested could be even bigger than the first.

When customers were sold PPI policies by their banks, many may have unknowingly been charged big commissions by the branches or brokers who sold them the products.

If it is decided that this is unfair, PPI compensation claims that were previously rejected could now be valid and due for a pay out.

It could mean that loan insurance that was otherwise fairly sold could now be deemed missold. The FCA proposed new rules today to suggest that a failure to disclose a commission of 50 per cent or more could be deemed ‘unfair’.

A number of new claims could fall in this category; the average commission on PPI was around 67 per cent for the 12 large distributors between 2002 and 2006, the FCA said today.

However the majority of these claims would already have received a pay out for misselling.